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Emperors Faithful wrote:All seriousness aside, at least they have a sense of humour.

In September 2008, the investigation found, more than 200 AK-47s were taken out of Bunker 22 and signed for by an employee named "Eric Cartman," which is the name of a character on the animated series "South Park." Hundreds of those weapons remain unaccounted for, according to the committee.

I was more interested in the guy named Johnny Walker...

sebster wrote:

Iron_Chaos_Brute wrote:If and only if the PMC is made up of expert professionals.

The point is that that is a very big 'if'.

Right now we have professional standing militaries that have been more or less established in their current forms for at least a hundred years each. They've developed oversight, review and control to levels that aren't perfect but are pretty sound. More importantly, they've developed a culture that puts the mission and the country first, and this culture strongly influences everyone in those militaries.

Most of the merc companies being discussed here have none of that. Most are very new and do not have the same levels of control and oversight. They do not have the same culture as national militaries.

The problem is that if you look at how militaries look to use merc forces (to bolster troop numbers when military operations are underway) I seriously doubt that merc operations will ever develop standards of conduct equivalent to our own militaries.

And I really doubt the benefit of flexibility is worth using troops that don't meet the standards you place on your own troops. Certainly not if they're to be deployed in the field.

I agree completely. It's a huge 'if'. No, most Private Security companies I would call mercenaries for the exact reasons you and others have described.

I was speculating about a largely hypothetical entity-I wouldn't say many true PMCs if any exist today.

Wow I don't look at this for a night and bam explosion...AWSOME!!!!! Ok so after catching up on almost all of the posts(can't see one persons) a lot of you ahve the right idea when it comes to this. Xe or Blackwater for one has the highest death rate of any paramilitary company. They are in conflicts around the globe, and don't just work for the U.S . All this said no some of these companies wouldn't go work for Al Queda but it stands to reason some have recieved payments from other nations that are not friendly to the U.S. Also killkrazy yes I do know about the Ghurkas and FFL and have a lot of respect for the legion. Ghurka's...once you see a fijian in battle compared to a ghurka you will look at those little guys like they are pussy's. I have served with them and yet again mutual respect(though damn those fijians are scary to fight against great partiers though). for those of you who remember the incident several years back with 30 civilians being killed in bagdahd that was by none other then blackwater(Xe now). The guys they hire that are or were operators or have strong experience in the military are their trainers for the one month coarse. The knuckleheads they send to "battle" are bouncers,cops, etc etc etc.